Second Years' Tourism Adverts

We read about tourism last week in 2A, so I asked the kids to write a short piece to attract tourists to Slovakia. Here are some of the unedited results. In regards to the second selection, we did talk in class about how lots of (predominantly) British guys come to Bratislava for their bachelor (stag) parties.

"Small country with Big heart. Also like this is called Slovakia. It's not very rich, not very big in size, but we are still happy! Not the materialistic things makes us, like money happy. Our environment, beauty of nature; honest people, beautiful sightseeing places like Vysoke Tatry, Nizke Tatry, Poloniny, Pieniny, Slovensky raj (mountains), Spisky hrad, Krasna Horka, Cachtichy hrad (castles), many caves should attract you here. We want tourists, We love tourists from whole world. Every nation, every race are welcome in our 5* hotels. Come to Slovakia, You won't regrate!"

"Okey. When you want to go to Slovakia for bachelorette it is very good choise. However, disco clubs aren't good in Slovakia you can get drunk very cheaply, but you watch out for you to arrest by the police due your bad behavior. (:D) I can also say that we have very pretty girls, but lots of them are gold-diggers. (:D)"

"Sheep cheese is traditional delicacy too. This cheese is produce on chalets. On chalets you may ride on horses, sing old people's songs with folk dancers, eat a lot of good food like mutton, veal, bryndzove halušky...

If you want to see all of this you must come and live through everyone of these things."

"People around the world visit these places to see the way of life of native people and feel the atmosphere of the past."

"I recommend this country for trip with your family on holiday. Your children will see things that they have never seen before. I like our home because I grew up here. Don't waste your time and come to Slovakia and experience something that you will remember for rest of your life."

"My words are useless, you have to come here and see it!"

There you have it. Time to ring up the tourist board and tell them their new campaign is all sorted.

Accordion Heaven

At the staff meeting on Monday somebody mentioned there would be a concert that some of the students would go to on Thursday, but the details were a little hazy. Things cleared up as the week progressed; the whole school would go at 10:30, meaning I'd miss a 20th century history class (aw darn), and the concert would involve...accordions.

I actually really like hearing people play the accordion. Sometimes I can hear kids practicing from the music school behind us, and it always makes me smile. I was stoked for an accordion concert. The concert involved kids from the Tisovec music school, including beginners with tiny accordions (see right), and a group of about 30 musicians from the Základná umelecká škola (basic arts school) in Lipany, near Prešov. There were a few kinds of different accordions, and different colors, and one was even plugged into an amp. It was rad.

(Not played at this concert, but related, is kind of an old-school accordion with all buttons and no keys, called a heligónka in Slovak. Isn't that the best word ever? Heligónka!)

A sextet of accordionists, accompanied by a bassist, played a song written by a man named something that sounded like Tupac, because I said to Rob, "They're going to play a Tupac song?" and that might have been about Jánošík. I was going to ask one of my students, the girl on the left, what the song was called and who wrote it, but she wasn't at school on Friday.* I really liked this piece. I don't know why I was holding the camera kind of wonky, though; sorry about that.

And then they played "Final Countdown."

It was the best day ever.

*Hello from the future. The song is called "Dupák" and was written by Ján Cikker.

Check This Out

The Daily What has just informed me that Google Maps has street views of (a few) UNESCO World Heritage Sites. They also have street views of historic sites in Rome, Hawaiian beaches, world landmarks, and other cool/pretty things.

To Google!

Investigative Journalism at Its Finest

Two Saturdays ago, whilst trolling the beverage aisle in the Hnúšťa Tesco, my glance happened to land on a beer bottle that was familiar and yet slightly different. One of the best Slovak beers, in my own generally uninformed estimation, is Zlatý Bažant (that's "Golden Pheasant" in English). Most Zlatý bottles have dark-green foil on the neck and cap, or black for the dark variety or silver for the nonalcoholic; but this one caught my eye because it had more of a yellow-green foil, while the corresponding cans are the same yellow-green color. The label proclaimed that this was Bažant Radler, and featured some lemons.

After seeing the beer here in Tisovec, I sent C a message about it, saying I wished he was here to try it and let me know how it was. "Be the test pilot..." was his reply.

I'm a sucker for a two-for-one deal, for any snack food labeled "limited edition," and for non-standard flavor combinations, especially when it comes to sodas and chocolate. Even though I'm usually not interested in beer, this new one appealed to my flavor curiosity. So with only a little encouragement from C, I decided to try it. Even if I hated it, a half-liter bottle only cost 75 euro-cents, so it wasn't a big financial investment.

(And C, "Hungry Eyes" totally came on the radio in the Coop when I was shopping.)

In the bottle, the beer looked a little cloudy, though I poured some into a glass for a better look. (Let us all try to ignore the horror and indignity of there being beer in my Kofola mug.) I was pleasantly surprised to find that this beer is light, and not as bitter as expected. A revelation: I didn't hate it. The reason became apparent when I turned to Google. Turns out Radler is the German equivalent of shandy, a mixture of beer and something from the lemonade family. As a result, it's not as high in alcohol as straight beer.

I hope we've all learned something today: about beer, about being adventurous, and about caving to peer pressure: sometimes it turns out okay.

Haiku

I wrote one in Slovak and am terribly proud of myself.

Hurá, jar je tu!
Lesy sú plné kvietkov
A tiež medveďov

which of course means

Hurray, spring is here!
The woods are full of flowers
And also bears

Only one line of this is true. Of course, now that I think of it it should say "The trees are full of skulls," but I don't yet know the word for skulls.

Alas, Poor Trigger

Spring is here, and you know what that means...time for a skull in a tree.

"Many sink down to the underworld..."

"...and few return to the sunlit lands."

I don't remember why or whose idea it was, but last year we visited a few caves. The first, and by far the least impressive, was the Bystrianska cave, not far from Banská Bystrica. We saw two different kinds of bats there, and that's really all I can think of to say about it.

The next was much more interesting, because it was one of Slovakia's two ice caves. We visited the Dobšinská ice cave on the edge of Slovenský raj. (The other one, Demänovská ice cave, is in the Liptov region.) The ice cave was more than just a hole in the ground...it was a hole in the ground filled with ice. It was quite pretty, though, and not excessively cold. I mean, I licked the ice, and my tongue didn't get stuck or anything.

After last weekend I can be done with going in caves for a while. Domica was on my (very short) list of caves I wanted to visit because of its underground river, and the possibility of riding a boat on said underground river. Domica isn't far away at all, although it's only about two kilometers north of Hungary. Getting there took a little maneuvering because of public transportation being what it is; we couldn't get to Domica from Tisovec on a Saturday, so we went part of the way on Friday afternoon, stayed in a hotel in Rožňava that night, and took a taxi to the cave the next morning. "Hotel?" you say. "Taxi?" you say. "Slovakia," I say, where it was all to be had for a reasonable price. Also, it was Birthday Weekend, which automatically justifies the price.

H and Robin and I arrived at the cave well in time for the first scheduled tour, at 9:30. I decided to pay the 7€ photo/video fee, just in case the cave was rad. (For better pictures than mine and information on other Slovak caves, check out the Slovak Caves Administration's website, which is quite good.) The tour was the three of us and a Slovak couple, and the guide spoke a little English, so he was able to tell us some things.

The cave was pretty big and quite open in places. The boat ride was not as epic as I'd hoped, but it was cool. Of course the idea of an underground boat ride automatically makes me think of The Silver Chair (whence the quote), when Scrubb, Pole, and Puddleglum are escorted through the underland. I think my favorite part of the cave was the area called the Roman Spa, below. It looks totally fake, straight out of Disneyland. I'd been taking a picture of something and when I joined the others I said, "This is fake, isn't it?" It made us all feel like we should be singing "A Pirate's Life for Me" on the boat ride, or looking for One-Eyed Willy's treasure.

FAKE

After the tour finished we took a short walk on a nature trail, ate lunch outside the closed and sort of creepy resort across from the cave entrance, then began our return journey. Theoretically we would take a bus to a place called Plešivec, then back to Rožňava, and then to Tisovec. There was going to be about two hours in Plešivec, a town of which we had no knowledge but hoped would be interesting. Alas, it was not. We briefly considered hopping a fence so I could get a better look at the Gothic church, but decided that would not be the best idea. So we got a taxi back to Rožňava, ate ice cream, went to Tesco, and then came home.

Slovak caves: done. Believe it or not, there are still some castles I haven't been to yet. Yet...

FAKE